Ending up in Florida might have been fate for Corene Matyas. Childhood experiences with severe weather drew them to learn about hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. Now a professor of geography at the University of Florida, Matyas studies the rainfall patterns of hurricanes and other tropical cyclones, including those that hit the state.
And like everyone in Florida, Matyas is treated to almost-daily thunderstorms, which have earned the state the nickname "lightning capital of the U.S."
How does lightning form? How can you stay safe? And does Florida really have more thunderstorms than other states? Matyas explains.
How lightning forms
As storm clouds form, they build up electric charges when water droplets and ice crystals in the cloud fly past one another. This typically creates an excess of negative charges at the bottom of the cloud and positive charges at the top of the cloud. The ground also becomes positively charged.
"Once you have enough energy built up, it's going to need to be released," Matyas said.
Lightning is the release of this pent-up energy. But first, lightning must find a path between negative and positive charges. It finds this path by sending out "leaders," exploratory chunks of charge that try to find the opposite charge to connect with. There's a degree of randomness, but these leaders are more likely to connect with tall, electrically conductive objects as they head toward the ground. Lightning can also form within a cloud or between two different clouds.
When negative and positive charges connect, a huge current rapidly flows between the cloud and the earth.
"When a charge is released, it creates light and thunder because the air heats up instantly to a temperature hotter than the sun," Matyas said.
That thunder also becomes a useful tool. Because sound travels slower than light, thunder takes longer to reach you than the lightning flash does. By counting the time between a lightning flash and its crack of thunder, you can tell how far away the lightning is. Every five seconds equals about one mile.
Although there are different guidelines for how far away is safe, the safest rule is to assume that hearing any thunder means you are close enough to get struck by lightning.
